Everything But This

[Instrumental Intro]

[Verse 1]

I kept the ledger in a drawer

Sixteen years of ink and column lines

Balanced every debt but mine

The bank gave me a plaque and nothing more

Then a letter stamped in Rotterdam

A name I signed for once at nineteen

A daughter I have never seen

She wants to know exactly who I am

[Pre-Chorus]

I booked the flight before I thought

Packed a coat and half a sentence

[Chorus]

Numbers never lie

Numbers never leave

I have counted everything but this

I have counted everything but this

[Verse 2]

She met me at a platform in the rain

Said you look smaller than I planned

I laughed because it's true

We ate in silence at a table near the canal

She showed me photos on her phone

A birthday I was never told about

Her mother died in March

She said I'm not angry I just want to know

[Pre-Chorus]

The bill arrived I reached for it

She said no you always paid in absence

[Chorus]

Numbers never lie

Numbers never leave

I have counted everything but this

I have counted everything but this

[Guitar Solo]

[Bridge]

She asked me what I did with all the years

I said I made them add up

She said that isn't what I asked

And the room went quiet as a vault

[Breakdown]

So I told her

About the fear of getting it wrong

The way a man can hide inside a column

And call it discipline

[Chorus]

Numbers never lie

Numbers never leave

I have counted everything but this

I have counted everything but this

[Outro]

She walked me to the tram

I gave her nothing but my name

She kept it anyway